Sometimes They Just Don't Hit The Right Notes

Since opening August in 2005, The Besh Restaurant Group has a reputation locally, and even nationally, for excellent restaurants. In the ensuing years, they opened new ones in methodical fashion, tweaking them till they got it right. They always did. There has been an occasional misstep, and one of these missteps is closing on Saturday.

Warbucks is a peculiar place, opening little more than a year ago in the space that was formerly Amici, on one of Magazine Street’s restaurant rows. No expense was spared in renovating, and this new concept was unveiled. But what was this new concept, exactly?

There was a large mural of a menacing-looking child on one wall, and a menu that hinted at All-American food, but wasn’t really. There isn’t even a particular cohesion to the menu. A burger called This, and a burger called That, and Korean BBQ fries and crawfish etouffee dumplings. You know you’re in trouble when you look at a menu and wonder if there is more, because nothing you have seen is interesting enough to order.

But we did order. Some Korean fries and a burger and mac’n’cheese, and a wedge salad. It all fell into that not-bad-but-nothing-really-good Neverland, which to be truthful most things do. So why do some restaurants serving food like that make it and others do not? Who knows, but speaking for us, we didn’t see a reason to go back, beautifully retro though it was. And obviously too many others agreed. If you do not feel this way, you still have until Saturday to revisit Warbucks, before it closes for a complete redo. What it will be hasn’t been disclosed, nor even fully conceived.